A new direction
by ChibiMilly
Summary: Where's a billy to go or who to go to after breaking out of prison? Takes place before Lightspeed. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Billy was running.

Well. One Billy was running.

300 other Billies were keeping the police busy. Showing the Jump City prison that they really needed to reevaluate how they held super powered criminals. And, also, that they would need a lot more handcuffs than they had on hand.

Billy turned a corner into an alley, breathing hard, letting his clones do all the work. He had escaped from prison, sure, but what now? His plan wasn't that far ahead. It came in two steps.

Break out of prison.

Okay, so it was just one step. He was working on the second part, honest.

"What next…get farther away? Yeah, sounds good…"

A second Billy suddenly emerged, breathing just as hard, nodding in agreement. Then a third. "Hell yeah, can't let the cops have any advantage!" The first Billy nodded, then remerged them back in. He was probably going to have the Titans on him soon too, considering that he was causing a bit of a spectacle.

He started to run forwards, looking for paths to take that would be hard to follow – over the fence looked nice…

Just then, a small black portal emerged a few feet in front of Billy, stopping him dead in his tracks. "Ohhh, hell, not Raven, not now!" He scrambled backwards, looking for another way out. A hand latched onto his shoulder, keeping him still. Billy gulped, turning his head.

He sighed, now relaxed. It was Kyd Wykkyd.

"Jesus, Wykkyd, don't surprise me like that!" Billy said between pants for air, grinning madly.

Wykkyd smiled back. He jerked his head back, suggesting that he should leave with him. Billy nodded.

"Yeah. Let's get outta here 'fore ah need ta multiply even more…lemme just get everyone together…"

With a little focus, all the Billies harassing the police, kicking open fire hydrants, and generally causing mayhem simply disappeared. "Awright. Ah'm ready." Billy said with a thumbs up. Wykkyd, threw his cape around Billy, and made the both of them teleport out from the alleyway.

At roughly that moment, the Teen Titans showed up on the scene, having gotten frantic reports that Billy busted himself out of prison. What they arrived to wasn't the moving, chuckling, yee-hawing sea of Billies they expected. Just a bunch of exhausted Jump City police officers, fire hydrants shooting water into the street, and random objects thrown about in a mess.

"Awwww, damnit." Cyborg said, disappointed.

In a puff of darkness, Billy and Wykkyd reemerged back into the city. Only this time, they were somewhere kept intentionally dark. Billy multiplied three new Billies, instinctively looking over the area to see if he knew it, or if there was just anything interesting (Or fun) to it. In front of them was a doorway leading into a building that looked abandoned. Abandoned and beat up. Abandoned and beat up and generally hit the architect's ugly stick.

"So, uh, how ya been, Wykkyd? Been awhile since th' academy." The original Billy asked, standing next to the pale red-eyed boy while the other Billies searched. Wykkyd smiled – life had been treating him well.

"That's good. Ah been good too, 'cept fer, y'know getting' beat by th' Titans an' thrown in jail." Wykkyd nodded. He had seen him on TV when Billy decided to steal the bridge, amongst other things.

Without a pause for breath, Billy continued speaking. "Thanks fer pullin' me outta th' fire there. But, uh, if ya don't mind me askin', wheredja take me?"

Wykkyd pulled out his ever-reliable notepad, used for whenever conversation couldn't be achieved via body language and facial expressions. It didn't get too much use around Billy – Billy had learned to understand Wykkyd well at the academy, after all.

'Home.' Wykkyd wrote in large, friendly print.

"Uh, okay. But where's home?" Billy replied, scratching his head.

Wykkyd grinned ear to ear. He put the notepad away, and pointed towards the door. The inquisitive Billies disappeared back into the one standing next to Wykkyd, stepping towards the door, turning the handle open.

To his dismay, all he saw was a dirty white room, that had a set of stairs going downwards.

"This is home, Wykkyd? C'mon, ya shouldn't be sleeping like this."

Wykkyd frowned. He motioned towards the stairs.

"Oh. Right! Stairs." Billy responded, acting as if he hadn't said anything dumb. The two of them went down the stained metal stairs slowly, coming to another door. This one was much cleaner.

Billy turned the knob, and pulled it open. Inside was a living room Bob Vila couldn't hope to match, stacked full of high tech electronics, genuine leather furniture, and wall to wall collections of DVDs. See-More, Gizmo, and Mammoth were all on the couch, playing videogames.

"That you, Wykkyd?" Gizmo shouted, without looking back. "We need a fourth player, and Jinx didn't want to play!"

Billy's eyes went a little wide. Wykkyd smiled.

He was at the Hive Five's base.


	2. Chapter 2

"You brought him HERE!" Gizmo shouted, hovering in the air, scowling. See-More looked curious, blinking his eye into a question mark. Mammoth didn't look one way or the other. Jinx was somewhere else, doing whatever it was she did. Wykkyd looked confused. Was there something wrong with bringing Billy here?

"YES, crud-for-brains! We can't just bring anyone here! They'll rat us out to the Titans or try and take our stuff…and…and… you just CAN'T!" Gizmo ranted, trying to maintain his furor.

"Why not?" Mammoth asked. "We let Wykkyd in."

"Yeah, but…we needed a replacement for Private Hive." Gizmo muttered, folding his arms.

"C'mon, why not, Gizmo? You saw that news report with Billy on it." See-More spoke. "Fought all th' Titans. Plus, he went to th' academy."

"So did that snot-eatin' jerk Cyborg." Gizmo snapped back.

"Yeah, but Billy was fighting Cyborg." Mammoth said simply.

Gizmo stewed, grinding his teeth and lowered back onto the ground.

"I still don't think we should let him in."

Billy had long since ignored all this. Four Billies were on the couch, and flipped the channel to Ultimate Fighting Championship. Another two were looking in the kitchen for ingredients to grill a steak with. Only one Billy remained in the Hive Five's immediate line of sight, and he was standing next to Kyd Wykkyd, who insisted with his body motions and hand gestures to let Billy into the Hive Five.

"Not up to us anyway." Mammoth said with a shrug. "Jinx makes those decisions."

"Razzin-frazzin', gunkmunchin', toaster ovens for brains…fine, he can stay till Jinx throws him out." Gizmo snarled.

Wykkyd grinned appreciatively. Billy gave him a thumbs-up.

"Thank ya kindly, Wykkyd. Didn't know where ta go till ya snagged me."

"DON'T GET USED TO IT, ROCK LICKER!" Gizmo shouted, struggling to find good insults now.

"Yeah, whatever. What else ya get on this TV?" Billy replied, walking to the couch amongst the other Billies, flipping through the channels. Wykkyd and Mammoth followed after, cruising through channels before Wykkyd pulled out the gamecube as suggestion for all of them. See-More and Gizmo stayed where they were. Gizmo continued to fume. See-More eyed him calmly.

"I'll go find Jinx and tell her, all right? See what she thinks about it."

"Stumminframmin shimmavimm…" Gizmo mumbled, glaring at nothing in particular.

"Uh, yeah. Sure." See-More said, and walked off to find Jinx.

"Damnit, Billy, whydja choose Pikachu! He sucks!"

"Ah'll play who ah want, Billy!"

"Not if you wanna win, Billy!"

Wykkyd smiled gently while he played, Mammoth grunted, getting fiercely competitive. The four Billies on the couch had become two to allow the others to play, and they were quickly removed from the match, too distracted by shouting at each other to play effectively.

Gizmo stared hard at the couch, then, with a press of a button, continued to stare hard, except from a higher perspective, casting fierce glances at the Billies arguing with each other.

Suddenly, echoing throughout the Hive Five base, rattling the framework and making everyone in the living room dead still came the booming voice of Jinx.

"**GODDAMNIT, I WAS SLEEPING!"**

Gizmo, after regaining his senses from the yell, grinned and rubbed his hands together.

He didn't accept new members easily.


	3. Chapter 3

Jinx stood at the top of the stairs, bleary eyed, and as menacing as was possible on 3 hours of sleep and getting up too fast. She had hastily thrown on a white t-shirt and jeans, not having time for her normal clothing after See-More had woken her up.

Her eyes had bags under them, but they were still narrowed in fury.

"Why. Was it necessary. To wake me up?" She asked, barely maintaining calm. Gizmo was set to improve yet another rant, to explain to Jinx that they already had enough crudmunchers as it was, and that they shouldn't trust Billy, and –

But it was to no avail. Mammoth spoke up first, and broke things down to their simplest terms.

"Wykkyd brought in Billy Numerous. Wants to know if it's okay for him to join." He said, jerking his thumb towards the pale boy and the southerner with the large chin. Wykkyd nodded, giving a small smile. Billy smiled as well, completely oblivious to how his overconfidence might be a bad thing around Jinx's short temper.

However, he lucked out.

"Billy Numerous? Guy who… fought Titans, tried to steal Jump City bridge, right?" She said, eying him. Billy nodded.

"Sure. Fine. He's in. Nobody wake me up unless it's REALLY important."

Everyone but Gizmo nodded, who seemed to be paralyzed by her easy acceptance of Billy.

"Otherwise, I'll kick your ass, alright? I need sleep. Don't get too loud either." Jinx gave a faint wave, and walked back down the stairs leading to her room.

Gizmo's head was moving in quick, confused motions, starting words but never seeming able to finish them. "Abuh- buh – wuh – HUH!" His hands went through a rapid series of gestures, which surely had meaning to him, but not to any of the other members of the Hive Five. The rest of the Hive Five didn't share Gizmo's confusion either. Mammoth gave a toothy grin, See-More gave Billy a thumbs up, and Wykkyd smiled widely at Billy.

They were all together now. And Billy had united back together with his closest friend from the academy, Kyd Wykkyd.

This beat the hell out of being alone with lots of yourself, he thought.

There was a bit of a pause in the room. Gizmo had stormed out to go stew in his fury a bit and eventually get over it, like he always did. As for the rest of the Hive Five, Billy had a suggestion.

"Ya'll wanna build a pillow fort?"


End file.
